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UBS Will Keep Equity Trading in London After Brexit

UBS Group AG’s equity trading venue is staying in London after Brexit, despite rivals accelerating plans to shift trading to elsewhere in Europe.

The Swiss bank’s multilateral trading facility is “taking the calculated gamble’’ that there will be a deal allowing European Union equities to be traded in London after the U.K.’s departure, according to Richard Semark, head of UBS MTF.

“We may be the only venue to continue offering continental European equity trading in London and we see that as an opportunity,’’ he said in an interview.

Most traders using UBS’s equities venue are outside the EU and are not required to trade on an approved European exchange, said Semark. UBS’s multilateral trading facility hosts about 1 percent of European equity trading.

The Swiss bank’s approach contrasts with larger rivals, which are putting the finishing touches to plans to move a large chunk of trading out of London to guarantee client access regardless of the Brexit terms.

Last week, Cboe Global Markets Inc. said it would move non-U.K. and Swiss stock trading to Amsterdam to make sure liquidity is maintained for the 7 billion-euro-per-day ($8 billion) business. Aquis Exchange Plc, which received regulatory approval from Paris last week to run an equities venue in the French capital, will also move the Europe portion of its 1.2 billion-euro per-day stock trading out of London on March 29.

London Stock Exchange Group Plc’s Turquoise venue is also aiming to be live in Amsterdam on April 1 for all shares except for Swiss, U.K. and U.S. stocks in the event of a no-deal or hard Brexit, it said in December. It reminded customers earlier this month of a dress rehearsal to prepare for the new platform across three weekends in February and March.

“We are so far down the line that even with a deal, we will go ahead,” said Alasdair Haynes, chief executive officer of Aquis.